Walking doll.



Hl-H. COLEMAN".-

WALKING DOLL. APucAnoN man ms. 20, 1911.

'ZSHEETS-SHEETI 1.

l I in a Patented Apn-IO, 1917.

H. H. COLEMAN-.4

WALKING DOLL.

AFPLICATIQN FILED FEB. 20, 19!?- LQQLWUW Patented Apr. 10,1911.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

HARRY H. COLEMAN, on NEW YORK, n. it.

WALKING DOLL.

Specification of Letters Patent.

and operation, whereby a child can. take the doll by the hand and-causeit to automatically walk along by the childs side in a. natural manner,without requiring clockwork wind up mechanism, or other mechan icalappliance. By dispensing with mechanical actuating means such as havebeen commonly employed heretofore in figure toys, and providing a novelleg joint construction, the present walking doll can be made very strongand durable and yet so attractive and natural in appearance that it willappeal to children.

I wish it understood that my invention is not limited to dolls as theimprovements embodied in the legs and their joints may be applied toother figure toys such as birds, animals, and the like.

The novel leg or joint construction causes the doll to advance one legafter the other by the child merely grasping the doll and imparting aslight lateral sway to the doll such as willbe suflicient to cause therearwardly positioned leg of the doll to clear the ground so that it maymove forwardly.

In connection with the leg joints, 1 provide resilient means which areplaced under tension at different times. Any elastic or resilientstretchable device, or any resilient device of any nature whatsoeveradapted to carry out the purpose of the invention may be employed and bythe use of the word resilient in the claims, I intend to include elasticbands, cords, or springs, of any char acter designed to fulfil thisfunction.

The doll is so constructed that it will not only walk, but may kneel, orsit down and may be danced with.

The embodiment of the invention hereinafter set forth is to beconsidered as illustrative, rather than restrictive, of the scopethereof.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is a side elevation showing the Patented Apr. '10, 191 8.

Application filed February 20, 1917. Serial No. 149,903.

doll in standing position, the skeleton or frame work of the body beingshown;

Fig. 9. a similar view showing the doll in walking position; I

Fig. 3 a similar view showing it in kneeling position; s

Fig. i a similar view showing the doll in sitting position;

Fig. 5 a cross section taken in the direction'ofthe arrow on line 55Fig.

Fig. 6 an enlarged detail vertical section of the hip joint,illustrating the lateral swing thereof; and a Fig. 7 an enlargedvertical section of the hip joint taken on line 7-7 Fig.

The body 1 may be constructed and covered in any desired manner andrepresent a doll, bird, animal or the like. The arms 2 maybe jointed orfixed, at the shoulder. The fore arms 3 may be jointed or fixed. Thelegs comprise upper sections 4', the lower sections 5 and joints 6connecting the sections. The joints 6 maybe of any type, ordinary hingejoints being shown'which are being provided with a stop 7 to limit theswing of the leg in one direction so that when standing vertically thesections 4 and 5 will be in alineinent as shown in Fig. 1. Connectingthe sections i and 5 of each le is a resilient device 8 which isillustrated as a piece of elastic or rubber. The tension of theconnection 8 is such as to tend to throw the sections t and 5 intoalinement as shown in Fig. 1. The upper leg sections 4 are mounted on atransverse rod 9 which braces the body and serves as a hinge for saidlegs at the hips. As shownin Fig. 6, the section a has an opening 10 bywhich the section is loosely mounted on the rod 9 so that it can swinglaterally or outwardly in relation to the body as illustrated in Fig. 6.The upper end of the leg section 4: lies in an openingll of suiiicientlateral width to permit this swinging action. As shown in Fig. 7, therearward swing of the leg section 4 is limited by its upper end abuttingthe shoulder 12 sothat the leg can only pass slightly to the rear of avertical position as shown in Fig. 2. A resilient device 13 which isconnected to the body at 14 and to a fastening or eye 15 on the upperend 16 of the section 4, serves the double function of retracting theleg section 4 both laterally as shown in Fig. 6 and toward the right ofFig. 7. In Fig. 7 the leg is shown in its rearward position.

Fig. 2, is arrested at the hip by I knee joint of that leg as shown inFig. 2.

The leg B which is in advance is also bent at the knee and the resilientdevice 8 is under tension. If the operator now moves the body towardhimself to an extent suflicient for the leg A to clear the floor C, theresilient device 13 of the leg A will immediately pull the entire leg Aforwardly, and the resilient device 8 assists the leg A in clearing thefloor C. The action of both resilient devices 8 and 13 of the leg A issimultaneous. The lateral play at the hip as shown in Fig. 6 is providedso that as the body of the doll is swayed laterally to effect walking,there will be no binding at the hip joint to interfere with free forwardswing of the leg from rearward to forward position.

The leg B having now assumed a rearward position corresponding to theposition formerly assumed by the leg A, if the body is rocked laterallyaway from the operator, the leg- 13 will advance, as did the leg A.

The doll may be made to kneel as shown in Fig. 3, or, sit as shown inFig. 4, or, it

' may be seated'with the legs stretched out straight in front.

Having thus described my invention, what I I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is 1. A walking figure toy having a body, legshaving hip and knee joints, resilient means adapted to cause the legs tonormally move forwardly, and resilientmeans for the knee joints adaptedto cause-the sections of the legs to straighten out? 2. A walkingfignretoy having a body, legs having universal hip joints, resilientmeans cooperating with the universal hip joints adapted to cause thelegs to normally move forwardly and also to move outwardly at the hipjoints. I

3. A walking figure toy having a body, legs having universal'hip jointsand also provided with knee joints, resilient means cooperating with theuniversal hip joints adapted to cause the legs to normally moveforwardly and also to move outwardly at the hip joints, and resilientmeans for the knee joints adapted to cause the sections of the legs tostraighten out.

-l. A walking figure toy having a body, legs, pins or the likeconnecting the legs to the body, said legs being provided with enlargedopenings through which said pins loosely pass to thereby articulate thelegs for universal movement at the hips, and elastic devices cooperatingwith the legs and tending normally to move the legs forwardly andoutwardly.

In testimony whereof, I hereunto affix my signature.

HARRY H. COLEMAN.

